Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday night that a
comprehensive ceasefire between Hamas and Fatah would take effect
at 23:00 (21:00 GMT) in the Gaza Strip.
"I pray to Allah that at 11:00PM tonight a complete and general
truce would start in order to devote our time to our most important
jobs and look into our affairs and our future," Abbas told a news
conference after a ceasefire agreement was reached.
Clashes between Hamas and Fatah erupted after Abbas called for
holding early presidential and legislative elections in the
Palestinian territories on Saturday.
Abbas stressed that the door for forming a national unity
government capable of ending "unjust siege" would be kept open.
He said that Palestinian police and security forces would deploy
in the streets of the strip to restore calm, adding that the
auxiliary force of the Interior Ministry would get back to its
locations and posts.
He also confirmed that King Abdullah II of Jordan had invited
both him and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya for talks to defuse the
current crisis, adding "I positively accepted the invitation, but I
don't know if Prime Minister Haneya would go."
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Said Siam said that both
President Abbas and Prime Minister Haneya agreed on a ceasefire
agreement, which was sponsored by Egypt.
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2006)
